The Guardian

boy had befriended Charles when he was in High School. Raymond Burrows. Raymond was about 4 years older and didn’t seem to have many friends. He was always hanging out with Charles at the local soda place after school. He bought him cherry cokes, French fries, what ever he wanted. He always seemed very friendly and concerned about him. They would talk about how his parents never really cared about him or understood anything about what he wanted or needed. Raymond was a very understanding, sympathetic friend to Charles. This had gone on for some time. Raymond had won the trust of the young Charles to the point that he was confiding in Raymond some of the things that were happening to him at home. Raymond was always compassionate and understood how Charles felt. Raymond was grooming Charles, and he didn’t even know it.
    Raymond had an old 64 Corvair. One day after school, he invited Charles to go for a ride with him on the pretext that he wanted to show him something. There were many dirt roads where they lived. Some only traveled by the farmers to access the wheat fields or areas where the cattle roamed.
    Once out of town, Raymond told him to pull out a notebook that he had hidden there under the seat on his side. “Here, take a look at those and let me know what you think” he said. Smiling a wicked smile as he was looking over, watching Charlie’s reaction.
    Charles gasped as he opened the book. Inside were pages and pages of young boys and men. All of them were naked; some were engaged in various forms of sexual acts alone or with other boys. Some of them were just posing naked, deliberately showing off their erections or fondling themselves. There were pictures of oral and anal sex, masturbation and everything in between. The one thing that they all had in common was the young, hairless, prepubescent boys in the pictures.
    Charles was speechless. He didn’t know what to think, but he couldn’t help looking at the pictures. He kept turning the pages, wanting to see what was next. He was sweating very profusely. He was scared, nervous, but excited at the same time. He became extremely embarrassed when he found himself getting an erection of his own. He kept the book firmly in his lap so that Raymond hopefully wouldn’t see. He just kept turning the pages, surprised at how much he wanted to look.
    “So, what do you think, pretty hot stuff huh slick?” Raymond asked.
    Charles didn’t know what to say, he was really afraid now. He was also very aroused and embarrassed. His mouth was dry. He could hardly speak.
    Raymond had pulled in to a small, open, grassy drive in area. The farmer who owned the acreage pulled his farm equipment in to work the field.
    Realizing his worst fears, Charles came aware. His father was the only one who had sexually molested him. This scared him. Instead of the forceful, vicious raping, Raymond was tender and loving and he found himself really enjoying it. This would continue as long as he knew him.
    On one rare occasion, Charles would spend the night at Raymond’s house on the pretext he was helping him work on his car. It was the first time that he’d ever slept over with another boy, since he didn’t really have any friends. After that night, Charles would let Raymond do what ever he wanted with him. They were mates.
    After several years, Charles couldn’t deal with the abuse at home any longer and had run away. He was about 16 then. When he had been found and authorities returned him home his father had beaten him so badly that he lie on the floor and couldn’t get up for hours. Then when he did get up the old man beat him again for leaving a mess. He was in such a mental state that he tried to commit suicide as a result. He spent a year in a mental hospital and was subject to intense therapy sessions during much of that time.
    A few of the neighbors had come over to complain to the old man about things he supposedly had done to their little boys. Of course, he would deny it and pass it off as adolescent tall tale telling. He assured them that nothing had gone on. There were no witnesses since no one had seen anything. The neighborhood boys never came around after that. Charles had very few friends.
    The sad truth was the damage done. He tried his best to tell the people at the hospital what had happened to him. They had done nothing about it. It obviously was his entire fault. He was no good and nobody loved him. it was apparent that if he had behaved differently he